A lush green hillock, where fast soil erosion was posing a threat to its very existence, was given a fresh leash of life, thanks to nearly a dozen of stone bunds raised at the vulnerable points near the foothill in Dhenkanal district.
The hillock in the Dhenkanal-Keonjhar border along Garhpalasuni-Pangatira road under Mahabiroad forest range would have perished within a few years like any other of its ilk in the vicinity and gone unnoticed, but the praiseworthy efforts saved it.
The forest in Dhenkanal district is elephant prone and several species of trees and thick foliages are found here. But the hillock was falling to fast soil erosion with the result that deep craters have been created around it at several places in which streams of water took away soil from the slope.
Years of this act have formed holes in the hill and uprooted many trees. Many trees are also seen standing precariously with soil eroded from below bringing their roots to the fore. Though hundreds of passersby went on the road near the hillock and the forest officials were guarding the area, yet none cared to take steps for saving the hillock.
“When we saw the hillock on a path of destruction, we were worried and thought of a plan to save it. Soon we coined the idea of building stone bunds which would not involve any major spending and could be an immediate measure to check the soil erosion and protect the hill,” said NSS Programme Officer (PO) of Bapujee HS School Kailash Chandra Sahani, an environmentalist and recipient of this year’s Best PO Award from the Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE).
Sahani took his team of 20 volunteers to the site and made them understand his plan. The volunteers collected stones and mortars from nearby and raised bunds in selected spots around the hillocks.
The idea was not to prevent the water current during rain which ran down from atop with soil, but to allow it pass through the holes in between the stones in the bund. In the process what is to be checked is the soil which the stream carried away otherwise.
The work was undertaken before the monsoon and when the monsoon came with rains, the bunds worked wonders.